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Saturday, 21 December 2013

Show Us Your Stash: Sprue Cutters Union #22

Greetings Wargamers and Hobbyists, and welcome to this week's Sprue Cutters Union post (#spruecutters). This week, I am getting into the Panto spirit and suffering from acute 'Old Mother Hubbard' syndrome, as we are asked to...

- I'll show you my stash if you show me yours... -

Now as every child may well know, when dear old Mother Hubbard went to the cupboard to fetch here tyrannical master of a canine something to gnaw on, the stash of snacks was decidedly lacking. When I considered this week's question, I realised that my modelling stash is much the same...

Though I may not have a modelling stash as such, this fact has highlighted to me a distinct difference between wargaming modellers and other modellers. Typically in my experience, the 'stash' is something that is peculiar to 'display model builders'.

As a wargamer, I have always been about the gaming first, and the modelling and painting second, and I have always imagined that the vast majority of gamers are the same. What this means in practice is that most wargamers don't tend to accumulate a treasure trove of unbuilt kits, rather kits are opened and assembled in a mad flurry of clippers, glue, filing, filling, guns and swords, and placed in a stash of units that are ready to see combat, but yet to experience any intimacy with a paint brush.

So then, when this question came about, I had to think about what I could say, and as I don't keep a stash, explaining why was the next best thing. I do however have one thing I could describe as stash, if stash is defined as an 'unbuilt model kit still on the sprue': the kit pictured at the end of this post! This was the gift I received as my Secret Santa present at work, and technically is a model kit. It's a kit that can be assembled as any one of six different constructions, and each uses the motor and solar module in the kit to power it, whether it's the car, boat, plane or dog.

For me, this is about the closest I get to a stash.

If you would like to read posts about this topic by some scale modellers (and at least one other wargamer), then Ininvite you to have a look at the links below, which will take you to the blogs of other Union members.